Histology Manager

NOETIK; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NOETIK seeks an experienced Histology Manager to lead our histology operations and team, ensuring high-quality, timely tissue preparation for a range of research workflows. You will oversee day-to-day operations, mentor the team, and drive quality standards while scaling with automation.

The role combines technical histology expertise with strong operations leadership, guiding capacity planning, workflow optimization, and cross-functional collaboration in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, histotechnology, or related field.
• Extensive hands-on histology experience with FFPE tissue preparation and sectioning.
• Expertise in sectioning a broad range of human tissue types, including challenging specimens.
• Strong understanding of histology workflows and artifacts, including tissue microarrays.
• Experience managing a histology team supporting high throughput tissue workflows.
• Experience managing laboratory workflows, priorities, and capacity, including LIMS usage.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail with high value or limited tissue samples.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day histology operations and technical leadership.
• Mentor and develop the histology team; set performance and quality expectations.
• Provide regular feedback, coaching, and career development for team members.
• Develop onboarding and training programs for new histology staff.
• Foster a collaborative, quality-focused culture with continuous improvement.
• Evaluate and implement new histology equipment, consumables, and automation to scale workflows.

Skills

Histology leadership

People management

Process improvement

Team leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences/histotechnology

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Histology Manager to lead our histology operations and team. This role will be responsible for ensuring consistent, high-quality, and timely preparation of tissue samples supporting an evolving range of research and data generation workflows.

This role combines deep technical expertise in histology with strong operational and people leadership. This role will oversee day-to-day histology operations, develop and mentor the histology team, establish and maintain high quality standards, and continuously improve laboratory workflows with an eye for automation as our sample volumes and technical capabilities scale.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Histology Manager will work closely with colleagues across Biosample Operations, Pathology, Platform Innovation, Engineering, and other functions. The ideal candidate is an experienced histotechnologist who excels at building high performing teams, solving difficult tissue processing and sectioning problems, and developing robust laboratory operations in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. Success in this role will require a determination to push the boundaries of histology operations to creatively scale workflows.

Responsibilities include:

Histology operations and technical leadership

• Lead day-to-day histology operations, including FFPE reembedding, sectioning, H&E staining, and related tissue processing workflows
• Serve as technical resource for difficult or complex histology issues
• Establish and maintain standards for each step of the histology workflow, troubleshoot all aspects of the histology workflow, lead root cause investigations where appropriate
• Ensure consistent production of high quality tissue sections for downstream assays including H&E, immunostaining, and spatial transcriptomics
• Partner with downstream assay teams to understand requirements and ensure appropriate tissue preparation
• Communicate capacity constraints, technical risks, and sample quality issues to stakeholders
• Evaluate and implement new histology equipment, consumables, technologies, workflows, and cutting edge automation to enable histology operations at scale

Team leadership

• Manage, mentor, and develop the histology team
• Establish clear expectations for technical performance, quality, productivity, and laboratory procedures
• Provide regular feedback, coaching, and career development for team members
• Develop onboarding and training programs for new histology team members
• Foster a collaborative, quality-focused, and continuous-improvement culture

REQUIRED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, histotechnology, or related field
• Extensive hands-on experience in histology, including FFPE tissue preparation and sectioning
• Demonstrated expertise sectioning a broad range of human tissue types, including challenging specimens
• Strong understanding of common histology workflows and artifacts, including tissue microarrays, with ability to troubleshoot complex issues
• Experience managing a histology team supporting high throughput tissue workflows
• Experience managing laboratory workflows, priorities, and capacity, including working with laboratory information management systems
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, particularly when working with high value or limited tissue samples

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• Strong track record in exceeding expectations, with a drive for efficiency
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a fast paced, highly collaborative and dynamic environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Team player, eager to unblock bottlenecked steps and lead continuous process improvement